


We Choose Each Other

by MoonySideDown



Series: Batbrats [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Bruce Wayne is a Good Dad, But It Usually Works Out, F/M, Gen, Meet the Family, Protective Bruce Wayne, RedCrow, The Wayne Family Is A Disaster Always, batfam, bruce doesn't trust anyone but he usually has good reason, discussion of past trauma, i'm shoving my characters where they may not belong lol, lots of fluff mostly, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 13:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20390287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonySideDown/pseuds/MoonySideDown
Summary: Meeting your boyfriend's family can be a little scary.Meeting your boyfriend's family when they don't know you're coming and in fact don't even know you exist? That's...something.





	We Choose Each Other

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Richard Walters' song The Rules For Lovers
> 
> This is kind of an experiment, wedging RedCrow into audreycritter's CEC universe, mainly just so I could use Dev. You don't /have/ to read her stories to understand what's happening but you should anyway because they're legit amazing and Dev is a sweetheart.

It’s early afternoon and the radio in the car Jason borrowed from Martha and Jonathan Kent is off for the first time since leaving the motel that morning. Chilled air blows from the vents, combating the heat outside, while the roads slowly begin to change to the serpentine mountain trails leading to Mount Vernon State Park and the Wayne Family lake house.

Rebecca sits sideways in the passenger seat, legs tucked up under herself, a book forgotten in her lap while she stares at Jason as if she can read his thoughts in the familiar curves and lines of his profile.

He’s stubbornly looking straight out of the windshield, both hands gripping the steering wheel, jaw working while he chews at his lip. His grip on the wheel is tight enough to make his scarred knuckles go pale.

“Jason.”

He doesn’t look at her but he glances at the dashboard sort of close to her. It’s a concession but he isn’t willing to meet her eyes yet. Good enough.

She keeps staring at him, taking in every detail she already has memorized. Currently he’s as tense as she’s ever seen him, which is saying something. “Are you being serious right now?”

“I’m always serious with you, babe.” He responds easily, but there’s no humor or ease in it. She can hear the tightness in his chest, as if he’s joking his way through an injury, pretending it doesn’t hurt and that he isn’t scared.

She doesn’t want to be mad at him, she really doesn’t. He expects her to be, and is bracing himself for it as if she’s going to yell and scream and throw things. It doesn’t matter that she’s never done that when she’s angry, it’s what his brain and body tells him to expect.

Her heart thumps in her chest and she takes a deep breath, turning her head to watch the road ahead instead of Jason for just a moment. Tries her best to collect herself. She doesn’t want to be the reason he’s so tense, so she forces the anger to stay in her chest and lets it burn there, trying not to let the smoke drift from her mouth.

The ride had been going so well up until them. They’d spent the night at a hotel they’d found just off the highway, eaten a greasy breakfast in a tiny diner, and ridden with the air conditioning blasting while they sang along to every song that came on the radio.

Then Jason had reached over and switched the radio off. She’d thought he was going to ask her to read to him. It wasn’t unusual. Over the past year it’d gone from a cute quirk of his personality to a shared means of finding peace, either of them just lying there listening to the other read whatever was close by, finding comfort and grounding and a peculiar kind of love in the other’s voice reciting someone else’s words.

She’d been leaning over digging in her backpack on the floor for the book she’d brought with her when he’d dropped the bombshell and she’d frozen solid in place even while the car bumped and growled over potholes in the sunbaked road.

The book is in her lap now, heavy and solid. She runs her fingertips up the edges of the stacked pages absently and focuses for a moment on the weight and feel of it in her lap to ground herself in the car so she doesn’t let herself snap at him.

“You...haven’t told your family about us.” It’s not a question, just a simple echo of the fact already stated and hanging in the chilled air that still smells like the Kent farm. Her voice is stiff and sterile in her own ears, purposely as flat as possible.

Jason doesn’t say anything, just keeps staring ahead and driving. If it was anyone else she would think he was ignoring her, but because it’s Jason she knows that he’s doing the exact opposite. He’s weighing every word, her tone, her body language, trying to gauge how angry she is.

“Do they know you’re seeing someone?” From what she knows about his family she already knows the answer. If they knew he was seeing someone they’d have done all they could to learn everything about her. She’s buying time until she knows how she should respond because of all the curveballs he’s thrown her, this one has surprised her the most.

“No.” Finally he looks over at her for just the barest of moments before focusing on the road again. “You’re pissed.”

Becca sighs and rests her forehead on her hand. “Yeah, Jay. I am.”

He reaches over to turn the radio back on and she reaches out to grab his hand first with her right hand, leaving her left supporting her head. Their hands close around each other and they rest on the center console between them. His hand is warm from gripping the steering wheel and she can feel the callouses on his fingers, the flutter of his pulse thudding in his palm.

For a long while she just stares at their hands, the contrast of his tanned skin to her fair, the scars on his knuckles, the difference in size. She’s using it to distract herself.

“Why haven’t you told them?” Her voice is calmer, warmer, and it feels like a victory.

He lets out a gusty sigh like he’s been holding his breath. “I don’t know. I don’t even know. I should have. I just...it never seemed to come up and I kept putting it off.”

“So I get to meet your family for the first time by just kind of showing up.” She really does try to keep the frustration out of her voice but it slips in without her permission.

“I’m sorry.” It sounds like an admission coming from him, from low in his chest but soft. It’s the way he speaks when he’s saying something he isn’t sure he should say so she squeezes his hand slightly for just a moment.

Whatever she was going to try and say next, it’s interrupted by Jason’s phone vibrating once in the cup holder between them and they both startle slightly at the sudden noise.

He lets go of her hand and returns it to the steering wheel while she picks up his phone.

It’s not at all unusual for her to read his texts off to him, when he’s driving or just doesn’t feel like coming to get his phone. She skims this one quickly before reading it to him, not even for the first time this trip, and suddenly it feels like pricking herself with a sewing needle.

“It’s Bruce.” She doesn’t even need to read the name to know that, the short and simple text says it easily enough. “He wants to know where you are.” The extra emphasis surprises her, and she bites the inside of her cheek like that could take the words back.

“Half an hour to go.” Jason responds, obviously trying to keep his voice flat, but she can hear some ice creeping in as a response to the way she’d emphasized you.

She types out the response and is momentarily tempted to add by the way this is Jason’s girlfriend he’s apparently never told you about, see you when we get there, Dad. But she sends the curt response and drops the phone back in the cupholder.

“How are we doing this, then?” She asks, staring at the dark phone screen. “Just walking in together and hoping they don’t freak out?”

“Guess so.” His defensive posture drops and he leans back in the chair, letting his hands slide from the top of the wheel where he’d been gripping to rest loosely instead on the bottom. “I’m sorry.” He turns his head and meets her eyes, his face open and unguarded and earnest. “I love you.”

There were times when it seemed like Jason was three different people. He could be Jason Todd, going to school in Wichita and majoring in dramatic literature, casually writing stories to rival any dusty old ‘great american novel’ on the library shelves. That was the Jason she’d started dating, the one who’d won her over with his effortless flirting and his beautiful eyes.

Then there was Red Hood, the ruthless vigilante who always seemed to be following his own agenda as he stalked through the night doling out his own kind of justice. That was the Jason who she’d met first without realizing it, who’d appeared in her life at midnight and haunted her dreams for weeks afterwards.

And at last there was Jason Wayne. The son who cared about his family and talked about them with warmth and love, even when he was complaining about them. He called his father at least once a week and filled him in on what was going on in his life. He went home to visit and brought back recipes and treats from Alfred, his unofficial grandfather. That was the Jason she’d fallen in love with first, before she’d fallen for all three of them.

The three versions of him are all part of the same man, and they mixed together all of the time in different combinations, but he always seemed to be trying to keep them starkly separate for reasons she just can’t figure out.

She leans to the side against the back of the seat and rests her head against the headrest, watching his face again while he drives. The tension from earlier is mostly gone from his body but he’s still worried, occasionally rolling his shoulders like he’s trying to work out tight muscles.

“Love you too, Jay.”

Silence falls in the car again and this time it’s comfortable and she lets it stay, partially because she’s certain Jay needs it after most likely spending the entire ride up to now deciding how to tell her his family has no idea she’s coming, and partially because her whole head is spinning while she tries to figure out how on earth to introduce herself when she isn’t even supposed to be there.

She remembers how he’s described the family to her, mentally listing them in her head, remembering all the pictures and snapchats she’s seen of them. She feels like she already knows them a bit, despite never talking to them herself. She’d been hoping they’d be excited to meet her, welcome her into the family, and it would all be as easy as falling in love with Jay had been.

But no. She isn’t just uninvited, she’s unknown. Instead of a nice surprise visitor, she’s a stranger walking in with a smile and a ‘hi, nice to meet you, I’ve been assuming you knew about me for the past year and a half, guess I was wrong, surprise!’

Should she tell them what she knows about them? Or would that make them angrier with Jason? Would they even let the two of them stay at the house with everyone else after this? Did they have money with them for another hotel? Would they just end up driving back?

She sets the book back in her bag and leans back in the seat, reclining it just a bit. Half an hour to go and she has no idea what she’s going to do or say.

Oh well. Not as if their relationship has ever been normal or predictable. This really shouldn’t have surprised her at all. Just following the pattern.

At some point Jason turns the radio on again and she doesn’t mind. It’s a relief to let her mind wander, following familiar melodies and rhythms, the same old commercials coming up again and again. It combines with the steady hum of the car on the road and the rocking motion of the winding streets to lull her into a sort of half sleep, her eyes closed and her mind wandering.

The car thumps over a pothole and Jason swears. It pulls her out of her doze and she realizes that at least a half hour must have passed by now.

Outside the windows trees reach over the road, hiding the late afternoon sunshine with their massive spread of branches and large emerald-green leaves. When she sits up she sees they’re traveling down a narrow paved road, winding uphill through the woods. If it weren’t for the power lines following the road she would have assumed they were in the middle of nowhere.

Then they round the long, slow bend, the house is right there in front of them, and she realizes they’ve been slowly rambling up a driveway, not the road.

They bump over a transition from dirt and gravel to dark asphalt, and driveway widens into a small parking lot where several other cars are already parked. Jason swings into an open space closest to the house and shuts off the car.

Being a cabin makes the house look a little less opulent, but the size gives it away immediately. It’s perched on the top of the slope that eventually tilts down to the lakeshore, a wraparound deck spreading away from the base. The main windows are large, and she can see shadowy shapes moving about inside what she assumes is the kitchen. Through the kitchen windows she can see huge picture windows looking out over the lake itself.

The driver’s door closing startles her, and she realizes Jason is already out and grabbing their luggage out of the trunk.

She climbs out with more reluctance, immediately feeling watched while she joins Jason at the back of the car. She’s hefting her backpack over one shoulder and reaching for her other bag when Jason presses a quick little kiss to her temple and she pauses, then glances up at him.

He smiles and goes back to collecting his bags without another word or any explanation.

She shakes her head with a smile and gathers her things.

Voices are drifting from a distance away, presumably by the lake. She wonders if that means not all of the family is inside and she might have a chance to take this slowly after all.

Jason leads the way up the wide, weathered deck stairs towards the front door, pulls a key out of his pocket, and swings open the front door.

“Honey, I’m home!”

The open door lets out a cloud of cool, food-scented air that washes over her while Jason marches straight inside. Despite her misgivings the smell says home and the tension in her chest eases just a little.

She follows Jason inside and finds herself in a large, open main room, comprised of the living room, kitchen, and dining room all at once. The wide windows facing the lake are letting in the sunlight, but the lights are still on in the kitchen area as well where two men are standing and chatting.

The older one she immediately recognizes as Alfred. He’s dressed like someone who rarely dresses casually, in a short-sleeve button down shirt and pressed pants, looking overall too formal for someone spending the week at a mountain lake house, but she supposes since he’s technically the family butler he should look fancier than everyone else.

When they walked in he was arranging glasses on a plastic tray at the kitchen island, but once he sees Jason he hurries over to the entryway with a smile and engulfs the younger, taller man in a hug.

“Jason, my boy. So glad to see you.”

The other man in the kitchen looks much younger than Alfred, with much darker skin and thick, wavy black hair. He smiles while Alfred greets Jason before coming over more slowly. She assumes this is Kiran Devabhaktuni, the doctor Jason always refers to as Dev. He’s dressed much less formally and it makes her a little more relaxed.

The moment Jason lets go of Alfred and hurries over to Dev for another hug of equal enthusiasm, the older man’s eyes are on Becca. His expression isn’t unkind but he’s clearly puzzled.

“Hello.” She offers before Jason finishes greeting Dev. She’s stayed by the door, holding her overnight bag in both hands, trying not to look as uncomfortable as she feels. “I’m Rebecca.”

Alfred recovers from his surprise quickly and approaches to shake her hand. His hand is warm and soft, thin with age but the grip is firm, and she immediately believes the stories she’s heard from Jason about Alfred being a force to be reckoned with. He doesn’t let go of her hand after shaking it and simply rests his other hand over hers. “It’s lovely to meet you, Rebecca. I hadn’t realized Master Jason was bringing anyone along.”

Jason is suddenly back at her side, meeting Alfred’s questioning but gentle gaze. “Well, since we’ve been dating a year come September I figured it was finally time to bring her around.”

Dev, who had gone back to the kitchen to sip from a fancy teacup left behind at the island, lets out a noise somewhere between a snort and a cough, setting the cup back down with far more force than necessary.

“Well gorram Jay, I’d say so!”

If Alfred is as startled by this revelation, he doesn’t show it. His smile stays easy and polite. “Of course. No better time, naturally.” He lets go of her hand. “The rest of the family is down at the lake having a swim before lunch.”

Jason nods, leaning down to pick up the bags he’d carried in again. “Where do you want us to toss our things? Are the bedrooms all claimed yet?”

Alfred, rejoining Dev in the kitchen and busying himself with the glasses and a pitcher of what looks like lemonade, waves a hand towards the stairs near the door. “I made sure one was saved for you. Of course this was back when I assumed you were alone.”

“No worries, we’ll deal with it.”

Becca follows Jason up the wide wooden stairs to the only bedroom with the door left wide open. It’s a small space with a narrow twin bed, but the room is cozy, with a window facing out over the lake. After she drops her bags on the floor beside the door she peeks outside and can see the others down near the water.

Jason closes the door quietly before dropping his own bags. “I think we almost gave Al a heart attack.”

“Is that a good thing?” She twists to look over her shoulder back at him with a slight frown. “I thought we liked Alfred.”

He nudges his bags over to the wall with one foot and shrugs. “Of course we do. It’s just tough to catch him off-guard, that’s all. He knows everything, I swear.”

He joins her at the window and looks outside. The group at the lake are visible through the spaces between trees, running on the beach and splashing in the water. “You want to swim? Or just wait here for now?”

“Wait here, if that’s okay.” She says softly, leaning on the windowsill.

He kisses her cheek gently, hardly more than a soft brush of his lips. “No problem at all. I could use a nap.” And he turns from the window to fall on the bed, messing up the neatly smoothed blankets and knocking a couple of throw pillows to the floor.

Becca laughs, shaking her head. “How do you make a mess immediately wherever we go?” She grabs the pillows from the floor and throws them back onto the bed, aiming for his face.

Effortlessly he catches them and tosses them off the other side of the bed. “Gonna join me? The blankets are fine.”

“I’m good, you nerd.” She laughs. “You take up the whole thing anyway.”

He rests his head on a small, square pillow with a rooster quilted in the middle and sighs, adjusting his position on the bed to make space. “Pardon me, princess.”

With an extremely over dramatic sigh, she grabs her book from her bag on the ground beside Jason’s and lays on her stomach beside him to read.

He closes his eyes and wriggles closer so he’s resting against her, his head nuzzled against her right arm. He’s warm against her skin, and when he drapes one arm over her back it’s a reassuring weight. His eyes are closed but before he falls asleep for real she leans over and kisses his cheek. A smile spreads across his face and she feels him huff a silent laugh against her arm.

In the silence, she can hear the occasional shout or joyful shriek rise from the lake down below the house. Downstairs she occasionally hears movement and soft voices from Alfred and Dev. The smell of food is wafting in, and instead of making her hungry the smells combined with Jason’s warmth and the steady rhythm of his sleepy breathing on her arm makes her eyelids heavy.

Eventually she sets her book aside on the white knit blanket covering the bed and adjusts herself in Jason’s grip so she can lay with her back pressed against him, his arm looped over her side, and his head nestled against the base of her neck. He smells like his motorcycle and the cigarettes he insists he’s quitting, with a touch of warm-smelling cologne beneath it all. The familiarity wraps her in comfort and she feels her entire body relax as she slowly falls asleep in the peaceful silence.

When she wakes up gently, slowly, the room still as quiet and peaceful as when she fell asleep. Sunlight is peeking into the window, falling in a golden patch on the smooth wooden floor, while the vent tucked close to the wall whooshes cool air into the small space.

Slowly she becomes aware that there’s no warm weight against her back and she can’t hear Jay’s peaceful breathing anymore. She sits up on the bed and looks around the small room, just a little confused and maybe slightly nervous.

Jason is gone. The door to the tiny half-bathroom attached to the room is open so she can see he’s definitely not there. The bedroom door is still closed, but she can hear activity downstairs.

She gets off the bed and grabs her phone from her bag on the floor, discovering that she’s been asleep for roughly an hour and a half, and also finding a text from Jason received fifteen minutes ago.

it says, followed by a string of food emojis.

It takes reading that text for her to realize her stomach is upsettingly empty. She hasn’t eaten since breakfast at that little diner off the main road a few miles past the hotel they’d crashed in. That was hours ago, and whatever is downstairs smells really good right about now.

But there are people downstairs. This isn’t the farm, where Martha and Jonathan are the only ones who she might run into. And it’s not her apartment either, where she and her two roommates duck into the kitchen at all hours for food. Without Jason beside her the idea of going downstairs now feels oddly like an intrusion.

For a minute she looks at her phone screen and considers asking Jason to come upstairs just so she doesn’t have to go down alone. She knows he would. He wouldn’t tease her about it or laugh, either. But she locks her phone with the press of a button and tucks it into her pocket.

The stairs from the second floor face the front of the cabin so she isn’t seen on her way down. The moment she steps off the bottom step and turns around the railing, though, she’s facing the large main room and is confronted with the sight of the entire Wayne family scattered about the living space with paper plates of food.

At first no one notices her, and she wonders if she might be able to grab her food from the makeshift buffet arranged on the island and slip over to Jay unnoticed.

“Good afternoon.” Alfred says cheerfully, startling her.

The room was noisy, but those words are enough to catch everyone’s attention and suddenly all eyes are on her and she feels like some kind of trashy Cinderella, coming down the stairs in a faded tank top and shorts instead of a ball gown. She has no idea what her hair might look like so she quickly runs her fingers through it, hoping she doesn’t look too insane.

“Hey.” Is all she can think of to say in response. Her head is still fuzzy from sleeping, her stomach aches for food. Part of her wants to just duck over to Jason’s side but at this point that feels like admitting defeat.

“Help yourself to lunch, the plates are on the island.” Alfred says calmly from where he sits on a simple wooden chair in the living room.

She nods her thanks and starts for the food, trying to feel casual and not like an intruder in this family home.

One of them, Dick, she recognizes his voice, says something she doesn’t catch that makes most of the family laugh and she’s grateful for it because conversation starts up again and she doesn’t feel so watched while she looks over the food.

There’s some kind of weird familiarity in putting typical cookout fare on a paper plate that almost makes her forget Jason’s family is stupid rich and that his dad is the actual Bruce Wayne and also Batman.

With conversation going on she risks a glance over at the living room.

She saw Batman in person once a year or so ago, for only a moment or two, but he’d been solid and imposing and hadn’t even looked at her but she’d felt small and intimidated. Batman was shadow and ice and hard edges, swooping in the darkness with an unsettling silence and grace for someone so large.

Bruce Wayne, not Batman, is on the couch eating off a paper plate with a plastic fork and listening to the family talk, nodding or smiling when appropriate. He’s wearing a t-shirt. His hair is a little messy and there are wrinkles beside his eyes when he smiles. When he takes a large bite of barbecued chicken some sauce gets on his face.

She turns her attention back to gathering food on her plate and tries to ignore the cognitive dissonance of comparing the man and his alter ego. Once she’s satisfied with her choices, she walks as quietly as she can over to the loveseat where Jason is relaxing. 

His feet are propped up across the seat so he’s taking up the whole thing, but when she approaches he bends his knees to make space on the opposite side for her and she happily tucks herself into it.

Her plan is to listen to the conversation going on around her until she feels comfortable enough to join. To creep in seamlessly, not drawing much attention to herself and making this whole ‘meeting the family’ thing as natural as poss-

Alfred clears his throat and that’s enough to stop the story Dick is in the middle of telling, drawing all attention to the older man.

“Why don’t we have a bit of proper introduction before we go on with our meal?”

Becca tries not to groan out loud but her eyes do close for a second while she takes a deep breath. When she opens them again she catches Bruce giving her a serious, appraising look. It’s a very Batman expression, she thinks.

Jason sits up a little straighter and clears his throat dramatically, swinging his legs off the loveseat and resting one heel on the coffee table until Alfred gives him a disapproving look and he drops that foot to the floor.

“This is Rebecca.” He says, holding out one hand towards her like he’s giving a presentation in class. “She’s very pretty, smart, and interesting. I like her and we’ve been a thing for almost a whole year now so I thought she might like to come up to the lake house with me. Rebecca, this is my family. They’re okay I guess.”

His official presentation complete, he returns to eating.

The family is still quiet, apparently waiting for her to say something for herself. It’s not an unkind or judgemental kind of attention but she’s still not sure what to do with it, so she looks down at her plate and tries not to act as awkward as she feels while she tries to figure out what she should say.

“Are you studying at the same school as Jason?” Bruce asks, his tone revealing nothing beyond polite interest.

“Um, no. I actually don’t go to school at all right now. I mean, I went to school. But not college.” Certain she sounds like an absolute idiot, she turns her attention back to her food and nudges it around her plate, tucking her legs up under herself for something to do with her body.

“How did you two meet?” He asks. This time when she glances at him before answering there’s a brief moment where she catches him looking like Batman again. His blue eyes are sharp and intense, studying her. It makes her tense up for a moment but she forces herself to relax.

“There’s a park close to where I work, and it’s close to campus. I walk there a lot, and sit near the pond to listen to music or exercise or whatever, and Jason walks there a lot too. I’d seen him before a few times.” Despite how dumb and awkward she feels, the memory brings a comforting warmth to her chest and she smiles down at her plate. “One day I got there and he was sitting where I normally sit. I told him he was in my spot and he didn’t seem to hear me. I assumed he was listening to music or something since he usually has headphones in, and so I just kind of sat next to him so he’d have to notice I was there, and he laughed. I asked him what he was laughing at, and he said he’d wanted to see what I would do if he took my spot.”

Jason smiles down at his plate, a bit of color rising to his cheeks.

One of the younger Waynes, sitting on the floor in front of the plush couch, snorts. It’s Tim, that one she’s more than memorized after the nonsense snaps he sends at all hours. “Romantic, Jay.”

Bruce moves his leg to nudge the teenager’s back gently. “Be nice. And don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“What do you do for work?” Alfred asks before Tim has a chance to say anything in response or Bruce can give her another of those looks.

“I work at a dance studio, kind of as a trade-off for the owner letting me live in the apartment over the studio. I do most of the receptionist work, and handle the website and social media stuff for her. Then I assist with lessons a couple days a week, too.”

She notices Cass, almost completely hidden since she was tucked against Bruce’s side facing away from Becca’s position, perk up and peek over at her from over Bruce’s shoulder.

“You dance.” It’s a statement, not a question, and the girl’s eyes are bright with excitement.

“Yep, since I was like, nine.” She’s eager to turn the conversation away from selling herself to these people as more but the ditzy girl their son met at college. “You should come visit our studio sometime, Cassandra, Jason’s shown me videos of your dancing, you’re really amazing.”

The younger girl smiles. “That would be fun.”

“The real question is,” Dev comments, totally relaxed and smiling comfortably, “have you taught Jason how to dance? That’s something I’d like to see.”

Jason frowns, pointing at Dev with his fork. “I’ll have you know I am a friggin’ fantastic dancer.”

“I’ve tried.” Becca answers as if Jason had never spoken.

“But you can’t improve upon greatness.” He finishes for her.

Dev laughs. “Sure, Jay. Whatever you need to tell yourself.”

“I don’t get any respect.” Jason snorts before scooping up the last of the food on his plate and eating it all at once. “M’ getting seconds.” He mumbles, standing and marching back towards the kitchen.

Becca cranes her neck to see him over the back of the loveseat. “Love you, baby!”

He waves a hand dismissively and she laughs, turning back to her own plate.

For a brief moment she remembers where she is, becomes acutely aware of the family’s continued attention, and is suddenly embarrassed by the casual affection she’d thrown across the room at him. To her relief, no one seems to react to it.

Stephanie, the blonde sitting beside Tim, tosses her empty plate to the side and leans forward, squinting at Becca theatrically. “Okay, I have a question now.”

Becca raises her eyebrows, chewing a bite of food.

“Why Jason? I mean of all people on earth, why him?”

“Okay now hang on-” Jason calls from the kitchen just as Bruce begins to interrupt her as well.

Becca laughs and half the family is suddenly all speaking at once and trying to raise their voices over each other while also dissolving into laughter.

To her relief, once everyone calms down, the conversation diverts into other topics. She finally finds herself able to relax and just watch the family together, observe how they interact and what their body language is like, to start to figure out how she might fit. Growing up she’d found learning to read people a necessity, and it’s served her pretty well as an adult also.

Throughout the conversation, she can still see and feel Bruce giving her those same appraising, thoroughly Batman stares. Like he’s trying to see through her every word, weighing every movement and gesture to see if she’s really who she says she is. It’s clear he has a truckload of questions about her that he’s just not asking and she isn’t sure why. Is it because he doesn’t know that she knows who he is? Who they all are?

Part of her wishes, when she catches the fifth Bat-stare, that she could just come out and say it- ‘hey by the way I know that you guys are all superheroes out saving the world and stuff no need to be shy with me’. But it’s probably better to let them get used to the idea of her even existing first, she thinks, before she drops that bomb.

Jason seems more relaxed too, which is a different kind of relief. He’s back to the Jay she’s used to, without that tension and stress weighing on him like it had been during the ride up. He smiles with no hint of stress, teases the others with the same warm tone he uses on her, talks with his mouth full and playfully imitates Dev’s accent. He winks at her once when he catches her watching him, before he turns his attention back to the conversation he’s having.

There’s still a whole week to go but Becca’s already feeling more optimistic about the entire concept, less self-conscious about how she moves or what she says. A whole week ahead to learn everything she can about Jason’s family. The family that might very well be hers too, someday.

Once evening falls the family disperses around the house, getting involved in their own activities. The house isn’t silent, but a kind of peace has settled into the living spaces while everyone is separate but together.

Becca sits cross-legged on one of the lounge chairs outside on the deck, overlooking the lake bathed in silver moonlight, looking up at the stars. The night air is warm but not enough to be uncomfortable, while crickets and cicadas fill the darkness with noise and the occasional bat swoops by in the moonlight.

The door to the porch opens and she doesn’t look over right away, not until the new arrival pauses just outside the door.

It’s Dev, whistling a tune to himself while he pulls on a pair of hiking boots.

She tilts her head, watching him lace his shoes.

“You going somewhere?”

He startles and almost falls over, then curses under his breath when he finally looks over at her. “Why does everyone in this family enjoy hiding in the dark like a bloody vampire?”

It takes everything in her not to burst out laughing at his reaction. “Sorry.” The word doesn’t sound all that sincere, despite her best efforts. She really does feel bad for startling him but something about his snapped-out reaction is just oddly delightful.

He straightens up and lets out a gusty breath. “It’s fine, I should be used it by now anyway.”

She rests her head on her hand, raising her eyebrows. “Where are you going in the dark, if you’re so annoyed by people creeping around in the shadows?”

“It’s not the same when I do it, I’m not a bloody superhuman.” He huffs. “I’m going for a hike.”

“In the middle of the night?” Images of snakes, spiders, and other horrible creatures hiding in the shadows of the trees and leaf-strewn paths in the darkness flash into her mind.

“If you’ve never gone for a hike at night, you’ve never lived. There’s nothing like it. You can join me if you like, Timothy usually hikes with me but he didn’t want to come tonight.”

“Maybe some other time. Meeting Jay’s entire family at once was enough adventure for me for today.”

Dev shrugs. “Understandable. It takes some time to get used to people as bonkers as this family. I was a bit floored myself at first.”

“Yeah but you were there to work on Bruce’s brain. They needed you.”

The silence after her comment surprises her. She glances over at Dev to find him watching her silently, his head tilted just a little like he’s mulling over what she said.

“They won’t throw you out, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He says finally. “Not if you don’t give them a good reason to. If Jason likes you that’s enough of a recommendation for them. Or at least it is for me.”

His voice is light and casual but the earnestness of his words turns to warmth in her chest and a sudden peace she hadn’t noticed she was lacking.

“Good to know.” She smiles.

He nods with a kind smile, then heads off down the stairs, his hiking boots clunking on the wood. Halfway down he starts whistling a tune that seems familiar but that she can’t place. The tune fades away when he reaches the lawn and walks off into the dark woods.

Alone in the silence again she leans back in the chair and looks up at the stars.

A whole week to go. A whole week to try to win over the Batman.

No problem.


End file.
